Posts Tagged ink
Does Font Type Factor Into Printing Costs?
Posted by Goldy in Computer Hardware on September 29th, 2010
In today’s society, with increasing costs for printers, printer ink and paper, many offices and small businesses are willing to try anything to cut down on their printing costs. Some implement the usual office-wide strategies of double-sided printing and secure login codes to use the printer. Other offices have gone into more drastic areas, implementing a paper-free office or equipping every employee with a portable USB drive. Here’s a much simpler solution: change your font and save up to 31% on ink costs. Say what?
The most popular font type these days is Arial. A study conducted by blog.printer.com, however, deduces that it’s certainly not the most economical. 10 fonts were used, printing the same text each time in a strict control. The printing habits of both private and business users were simulated, with a Canon Pixma MP210 used for home users and the Brother HL-2140 for business users.
Identical pages were printed in all 10 fonts. The documents were turned into .pdf documents and scanned by the application Apfill, which calculated the total ink coverage of each page.
In the end, the total ink coverage for each font given identical text was compared, and a clear winner was established, one that used the absolute least amount of ink. A home user could save around $20 a year by switching to Century Gothic over Arial, assuming around 25 pages/week. A business user printing around 250 pages a week would actually save as much as $80 in a year.
For businesses printing more than 250 pages a week or a businesses with multiple printers on-site, this cost savings could grow even higher.
So which font came out on top?? Which font had the least page coverage while remaining acceptably readable?
Taking the #1 prize is Century Gothic. Other popular fonts include Times New Roman listed at #3 and Verdana listed at #5. Arial itself was ranked #6 in the list of 10 fonts tested for ink usage.
Perhaps this is a method that would work in your company or small business to lower costs. Just change the font.
Take a look at the rest of the blog.printer.com article on their website, where you can see numbers and rankings for all ten of the tested fonts.
Try inkcartridges.com for great deals on cheap ink cartridges.
Ways To Cut Down On Printing Expenses
Posted by Goldy in Computer Hardware on September 26th, 2010
Are printer and printer ink costs crippling your small business? You might want to take a look at some of these cost-saving tips in the copying room that can help lower expenses and boost the bottom line in your company.
1. Try to ensure that everyone in the company is aware of all the different print settings and abilities. Make sure they know how to reduce font size to fit more text on a paper, how to print double-sided sheets and how to just print pages or selections of pages that are needed instead of an entire document. When color isn’t necessary for the document’s meaning, encourage and demonstrate use of the ‘print color in black and white’ feature found in the print settings. Color ink is more expensive than black ink.
2. Make sure everyone in the office knows how to use the ‘print preview’ command to ensure there are no errors in the document such as spacing or margins that can be easily fixed without wasting a paper copy.
3. Consider investing in a laser printer instead of an inkjet printer. The laserjet is more cost-effective, printing at 1-3 cents per page, whereas the inkjet can cost 4-12 cents per page. You’ll pay more for a Laserjet, but then the savings will add up as your company saves money on every individual piece of paper printed.
4. Printer-friendly versions on web pages are useful options if you’re looking to print directly from the web, so remind your officemates about that. Less ink is used when printing these versions because they have fewer ink-stealing graphics.
5. If using an inkjet printer, take advantage of ink refills at discounted prices and order cheap ink cartridges online from places like 4inkjets.
6. Electronic copies via email should be employed as often as possible instead of printing papers for inter-office use. Rather than printing out a paper draft of a document, use a USB drive to store the file.
Using these tips in your office will probably see slow results at first, but if everyone works together, the cost savings and overall green effect will have a very positive impact.
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Final Take On The Canon Pixma MX310
Posted by Goldy in Computer Hardware on September 26th, 2010
A few years ago, I received a Canon Pixma MX310 All-in-One Printer as a graduation present. I’ve used it for a few years now, and would like to share my take on the quality and features of the product and provide some kind of final verdict.
The MX310 handles printing, scanning, copying and faxing. I have used all of the fairly extensively with the exception of the Fax feature. I will talk about each feature individually and then discuss a few other printer considerations.
The print feature on the MX310 is excellent. The installation software was easy to comprehend and I was able to connect the printer and print a few test documents within minutes of opening the box. Printing is reasonably fast and doesn’t seem as prone to jams as other printers on the market. The ink usage is fairly high, unfortunately, and the cartridges cannot be refilled, but replacement ink is modestly priced and can be found online for as little as $22 at a reputable dealer like 4inkjets. For the tech geeks, it prints up to 600×600 dpi in monochrome at 22 pages/minute and 4800×1200 dpi in color at 17 pages/minute.
Copying is also easy. The ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) is reliable and holds up to 30 pages comfortably.. Quality, of course, is great, as would be expected from Canon-branded anything. Professional-quality stills are approximated extremely well by copying photos onto professional-quality photo stock.
Scanning produces similar high-quality results. The scanning feature, however, has always given me cause for an issue. I have always had issues getting the printer to shift to the scan function. Often, I have to press the ’scan’ button several times before the machine moseys into scan mode. Once the documents are scanner, however, the quality is excellent.
I don’t know much about the fax. From what I’ve seen online, opinions vary. People like the 20-number storage capacity, but don’t like how few options it has. Frankly, I would suggest looking elsewhere for reviews about the fax if you really care about its capabilities.
The largest complaint I have with the printer is its awkwardly large size. The printer is gigantic. It takes up half of my desk! I can’t fit my laptop on my desk if the printer is on it. The printer also makes a lot of noise. The cartridge will probably still have around 30-40 pages of printing left in it when the low ink-refill light comes up. It’s not very eco-friendly, and I hope it wasn’t intentional on Canon’s part.
Pros: Produces high-quality products, functions quickly and without jams.
Cons: Ink glutton, can’t refill ink cartridges, large size.
My final rating is 3 stars out of 5. Although the printer has high prodcutivity, I just can’t afford to keep replacing ink at the rate I do, and the large size makes it difficult to fit onto a desk. It is a decent printer, but when I buy my next model, I will definitely look for something less space and ink-consuming.
Try inkcartridges.com for great deals on cheap ink cartridges.
A Class Of Printer For Everyone
Posted by Goldy in Uncategorized on September 19th, 2010
Everyone needs a printer these days. Everyone should have a printer, for your house, your business, or your dorm room-and maybe all three. With many options, choosing the printer right for your needs can be a tricky business? Let’s take a look at the options available for you:
Primarily Business Use
If you plan on a buying a printer for your small business, or maybe you’ve been tasked with purchasing a printer for your large company, a multifunction all-in-one printer is your best bet. These combination devices can usually print, copy, scan and fax. They start at about $100 for smaller ones (like my Canon MX310) and can run into hundreds of dollars for larger workhorses capable of hundreds of pages in just minutes. Large corporations will want to look into network laser printers.
On the Go
For travelers, the best option is a lightweight, battery operated portable printer. They’re generally superlight and supercompact and may plug into car chargers. They usually weigh less than 5 lbs and may even allow printing via cell phone.
Primarily Home-based
Home users demand a variety of functions out of their printers, but probably not very demanding tasks. Responsibilities might include development of home photography or the printing of a report for school. That’s why a printer for home use needs to be inexpensive and dependable. I would suggest a personal Inkjet printer. Inkjets are a little slower than their more recent siblings, the laswerjets, but they will be well up to the tasks presented by a home user. $50-$100 is a normal price for an Inkjet printer and generally $10-$40 (depends on exact needs) will buy an ink replacement cartridge. I really like inkcartridges.com for great deals on cheap ink cartridges.
College Students, Aspiring Novelists
With more intense usage of the printer, such as that demanded by college students writing final essays or an author cranking out hundreds of pages a day, an Inkjet becomes too slow and expensive to be a reasonable choice. Here, a good choice is a Laserjet printer. The printer itself will cost more, but the savings in ink will eventually add up (important for both college students AND authors). $200 is a reasonable price for a Laserjet printer.
A Class Of Printer For Everyone
Posted by Goldy in Uncategorized on August 16th, 2010
Everyone needs a printer these days. Everyone should have a printer, for your house, your business, or your dorm room-and maybe all three. With many options, choosing the printer right for your needs can be a tricky business? Let’s take a look at the options available for you:
Primarily Business Use
If you plan on a buying a printer for your small business, or maybe you’ve been tasked with purchasing a printer for your large company, a multifunction all-in-one printer is your best bet. These combination devices can usually print, copy, scan and fax. They start at about $100 for smaller ones (like my Canon MX310) and can run into hundreds of dollars for larger workhorses capable of hundreds of pages in just minutes. Large corporations will want to look into network laser printers.
On the Go
For travelers, the best option is a lightweight, battery operated portable printer. They’re generally superlight and supercompact and may plug into car chargers. They usually weigh less than 5 lbs and may even allow printing via cell phone.
Primarily Home-based
Home users demand a variety of functions out of their printers, but probably not very demanding tasks. Responsibilities might include development of home photography or the printing of a report for school. That’s why a printer for home use needs to be inexpensive and dependable. I would suggest a personal Inkjet printer. Inkjets are a little slower than their more recent siblings, the laswerjets, but they will be well up to the tasks presented by a home user. $50-$100 is a normal price for an Inkjet printer and generally $10-$40 (depends on exact needs) will buy an ink replacement cartridge. I really like inkcartridges.com for great deals on cheap ink cartridges.
College Students, Aspiring Novelists
With more intense usage of the printer, such as that demanded by college students writing final essays or an author cranking out hundreds of pages a day, an Inkjet becomes too slow and expensive to be a reasonable choice. Here, a good choice is a Laserjet printer. The printer itself will cost more, but the savings in ink will eventually add up (important for both college students AND authors). $200 is a reasonable price for a Laserjet printer.
HP Color LaserJet 8550n Toner - The Cost Friendly And Confident Toner Cartridge
Posted by Goldy in Computer Hardware on March 9th, 2010
Putting the HP Color LaserJet 8550n printer through its paces quickly reveals that one is looking at a product from Hewlett-Packard that has been built with a large or medium-sized workgroup within a medium-sized business in mind. It does its jobs in both color and monochrome (meaning black and white) equally as well, and it comes to its user at a relatively reasonable price. You’ll also need to check out HP Color LaserJet 8550n laser toners.
Print speed output in B&W comes in at a nice 24 pages in a minute and about 6 pages in a minute for a color print task. It’s clear that HP designed the printer to be a champion for black-and-white duties while throwing in the ability to print out a color job when needed. There’s nothing wrong with this intended mission; just keep print speed in mind when considering whether or not to purchase the 8550n.
The only way to connect the 8550n is through a parallel port or through a nice Ethernet port. There really is nothing to fret about when it comes to not having a USB connection, because every modern workgroup network will feature at least Ethernet capability. The parallel port connectivity function seems to be so that it can hook into older networks with no problems.
As far as the quality of the print job, Hewlett-Packard has ensured that there will be no unpleasant surprises. The 8550n comes standard with 600 dots per inch print resolution capability, which is usually more than enough for most business needs. Any graphics-intensive products should also come out looking acceptable, though business presentation documents could benefit from 1200 dpi.
The HP 8550n can also be ordered with two-sided printing capability; though that’s an option that many workgroups usually don’t take advantage of. Onboard memory is a fine 64 MB, which is upgradable to a full 512 MB in no time at all. Always check with the IT department so that they can assess the print needs of the workgroup before devoting any additional monetary resources upgrading memory that just might not be needed. Buy affordable HP Color LaserJet toner.
All print tasks are managed via use of a 200MHz microprocessor that’ll keep all incoming and outgoing print tasks prioritized and processed in short order. It also comes with 3.2 gigabytes of storage capacity on an internal hard disk drive (HDD). The printer’s also fairly hardy, with a 60,000 page per month monthly duty cycle. There’ll be little worry about durability when it comes to the printer.
As far as how much paper can be held onboard the 8550n, it is truly impressive at 1100 pages of standard paper stock. All of the different media varieties that can be printed out on are just as impressive, and includes glossy paper, labels, transparencies, envelopes and standard plain paper. An occasional replacement of its four printer cartridges is really almost all that’s ever needed. When you need new Color LaserJet 8550n printer toner cartridge, just do a search online.
Can’t Print, Won’t Print
Posted by Goldy in Computer Hardware on February 13th, 2010
Digital photography has exploded, exceeding all forecasted figures and many people have a number of of these great devices, however one in all the fundamental values of photography has been lost in the transfer from film to digital cameras.
Analysis shows that the majority of digital photo’s don’t seem to be printed or printed in any approach, instead billions of photos are sitting on computers and memory cards everywhere the globe, hidden away in cyberspace.
This is a sad prospect as passing images through friends, family and generations has been a tradition for several years, reminding us of our ancestors and recollections of times gone by. Photographs gain importance with age and there is a pleasure in flicking through previous photos. It should be remembered that it could not forever be doable to view photos persisted these days’s digital media, as progress may backdate the media kind and also the compatibility to read them. We ought to therefore not overlook the importance of constructing actual prints of our precious digital snaps.
The most important reason for our reluctance to print digital photos is the perceived complications in printing a high quality digital print, however with digital photo kiosks, reasonable photo printers and simple to use software, it is very not that hard. It’s entirely potential for the novice pc user to provide nice quality prints from their digital camera using the home photo printer.
Generally speaking, getting a image from your digital camera to your printer normally involves these straightforward steps:
1. Copy pictures from camera to a folder on your computer.
2. Load up your printing software and opt for the pictures you would wish to print.
3. Choose the scale and type of paper you are using (continually use photo paper).
4. Print your photos.
A great new perform on many of the latest cameras and printers cuts the process right down. The PictBridge print system is in all probability the easiest manner of obtaining your pictures from your camera on to photo paper. This technique does depend on having each a PictBridge compliant printer and a PictBridge compliant camera, but most new photo printers and cameras on the market can have PictBridge as commonplace - however it’s price trying out if you are regarding to shop for a printer or camera.
The PictBridge system permits you to print directly from your camera to the printer without the employment of a computer. You can select photos, print size and quantities, all from the screen of the camera and method the print with a button!
The great factor concerning printing your own photos is that you have got total control, alternative and discretion. You’ll be able to print as several copies as you wish, opt for varied sizes and finishes and using photo editing software, you’ll be able to tweak your photos as a dark space technician would, or even get artistic! Of course half the fun of digital photography is what you’ll be able to do with the printing of the photo.
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